Dish with flowers and birds

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Most likely introduced from the Islamic world, where it had developed in the ninth century in response to imported Chinese ceramics, the use of a tin-based glaze to cover a dark earthenware body has a long history in Europe. Here, the tin glaze is painted with blue pigment on a plate whose shape and design parallel Chinese kraak ware.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art